Are We All Living on Empty?

I was sitting at my desk, headphones on, and the phone rings...

With each ring of the phone, my heart beat faster and faster…

My body frazzled and anxious…

Because I was caught off guard from this “UNKNOWN” number.

And if you are thinking to yourself this isn’t a normal reaction…

You are correct.

This was a normal reaction that my body would have in response to small things that would happen throughout my day. And the more and more I started to think about what was going on, the more I realized my body felt constantly on high alert. And I never made the connection.

What sort of threat could this unknown number pose to my life? Why did this solicit such an intense reaction in my body?

For years I didn’t know, and now, I know.

I recently watched a video on YouTube with Dr. Joe Dispenza and Tom Bilyeau. While the entire 18-minute clip was fascinating, I found this one point the most intriguing, and the most pertinent to my cell phone story…

Dr. Joe Dispenza stated that most people spend about 70% of their life living in survival. And that hit me like a ton of bricks. That is where I had been. And that is how I had felt for so many years, and I couldn’t pinpoint why my body was having this response. I wasn’t threatened. I wasn’t fighting for my life. I wasn’t running away from danger. So why was my body reacting as if I was?

Stress is a funny thing.

How do we measure stress? How do we know what effects stress is having on our body?

When we understand how our body uses minerals in the stress response, we can also understand why testing our mineral levels can be so critical in shifting out of a stress-based state, out of survival.

Minerals also help to provide the charge for the body. As you can imagine, if your body is running on low mineral levels, your body is running on a low charge.

The Stress Response of the Body

When we encounter a stressor or stressful situation, our body goes through a specific response to stress. Once our body deems a situation as stressful, our hypothalamus is activated, releasing corticotropin releasing hormone (CHT), which then sends signals to our pituitary and adrenals. This is the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis.

After the pituitary is signaled, it releases adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACHT) which then signals the adrenals to produce cortisol.

Cortisol is then released to keep the body’s blood sugar levels steady.

The release of cortisol ensures that the body has adequate levels of blood sugar in the body, which helps deal with the stressor, and also helps bring the body back to normal.

The body also releases adrenaline, part of the autonomic nervous system which prepares the body to deal with stress. This is the “fight or flight” reaction of the body. Your heart rate will increase, digestion will decrease, you start to sweat a bit more, and your blood pressure increases. All this is driven by adrenaline and the sympathetic nervous system. This also causes a reduction in activity of the parasympathetic nervous system.

Ideally, once the stressor is removed or dealt with, our parasympathetic nervous system takes over and the body is brought back to balance.

Prolonged Levels of Stress

When our body is under prolonged periods of stress, our HPA axis remains activated. The persistent flow of adrenaline and cortisol create changes that help to replenish the body’s stores that have been depleted through the stress response. This can also lead to a buildup of fat tissue and additional weight gain.

Our body is unable to distinguish between an actual threat, aka a tiger chasing after us in the wilderness, and a perceived threat, aka an unknown number calling a cell phone.

A threat, is a threat, is a threat, to the brain.

So, when a body is receiving constant outside stimuli, and the brain perceives it as a threat, the body will stimulate the fight or flight response. If this happens over and over, with small stressors that happen every day, the body is unable to relax and shift out of this fight or flight.

Imagine, we wake up late, we are in a rush to get to work or sign in online (for those of us who work from home now), we get stuck in traffic, we are late to a meeting, we miss an important call, we forget to pay a bill...all can trigger the fight or flight response.

And this constant barrage does not allow the body to relax. So we start to see an increase in stress-related symptoms.

If we are always in survival mode, how are we supposed to get anything accomplished in our lives, if we are LITERALLY living only to survive?

We are worth so much more than mere survival.

We are worth thrival.

We are worth the potentiality of what is possible.

We are worth shifting out of survival, and into the world of possibility.

Because once we make this shift, the whole world starts to open up- with energy, with clarity, and with infinite possibilities.